Alfred Hitchcock. The Complete Films Ed. Paul Duncan (4.5🌟)

Alfred Hitchcock. The Complete Films is a beautiful illustrated book discussing the directors work. It contains an interesting  introduction briefly explaining Hitchcock's motivations and methodology. An essay continues which is divided in three parts each discussing the director's life and work in more detail in his early, mid and late career. The longest section of the book follows containing 6 to 10 page chapters on each of the 53 films the director produced. They include some background on the stories, (original novels), synopses (with spoilers) and anecdotes. The last, short section is a list of cameos by Hitchcock. All of the sections above are fully illustrated with beautiful photographs of the director, actors and sets. 

Hitchcock and his wife Alma discussing a production. An assistant is taking notes, right. (Photo in page 47)

Now, that I read this book, I appreciate Hitchcock's work much more. He was truly a genius. The book opens our eyes to the development of his style, to his evolution. From black and white silent movies to "talkies" and technicolour. I am impressed at how versatile he was, adapting to new technology and by being creative in its use. What else can I say?  I liked how Hitchcock created a brand of his name. Even when he was adapting stories from novels he made his movies HIS. He liked to take artistic licenses from the original stories sometimes even by changing the endings. There was one time when he was not allowed to do that though. The book relates the story of how famous producer David O. Selznick insisted (and forced?) Hitchcock to be more truthful to the story of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. As a result the movie lacks some of the director's irony and humorous touches. Nevertheless, the irony, is that it won two Oscars for best picture and best cinematography. Anyways, this is great, fun read for any Hitchcock's fun who hasn't read anything about him before. I think there are other works which discuss his work much more in depth than this one.

Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of North by Northwest.  (Photo in page 185)

This book was published by Taschen and it has 686 pages.